Thursday, 2 May 2013

Mass Effect 3: The End

It's finally time!! The last post covering Mass Effect 3!!! It's been a while since I finished, enough time for me to finish the campaign of Halo 4 in fact, but it's still great to look back on this epic adventure as Shepard finally takes the fight bacvk to Earth.

With Cerberus out of the picture it's time for an all-out assault on Earth, not only to free the planet but to activate the Crucible, which requires the Citadel as it's key component, now orbiting the planet with the heaviest force of Reapers guarding it. Anderson outlines the plan, the allied forces are split into three fleets:-

The Sword - which will engage the Reapers directly and occupy their forces
The Shield - which will hold back and protect the Crucible until it is ready to activate
The Hammer - which will punch through to the ground and attempt to infiltrate the Citadel from the city of London.

All forces are committed and a fierce battle begins.

Upon landing Shepard is asked to meet up with the rest of Hammer forces, but on the way they find Hammer troops being picked out of the sky by Reaper anti-air so Shepasrd is diverted to take it out.

The Hades Cannon is a massive Reaper device, the size of a Destroyer-class Reaper. It is capable of damaging large targets and picking nimble targets such as shuttle out of the sky. Shepard used the power of the M-920 Cain to take it out.

Shepard pushes through to the Forward Base where he meets up with Anderson and also Wrex who is rallying his forces, while Javik is reflecting on the first war with the Reapers and how close his people came. There is also a communications station where Shepard spoke to all his former comrades scattered throughout the warzone, thanking them for all they have done to keep the fight alive. After a moment of peace with Liara Shepard heads through to the briefing.

London is a complete warzone, but their goal lies ahead - the conduit which will transport ground forces up to the Citadel where they can secure it.

A Reaper destroyer lands ahead of the conduit. Shepard manages to defend and activate some Thanix missiles ahead of the Reaper and uses them to take it out with a precisely timed shot. With the destroyer out of the way it's time for an all out push to the Citadel.

Just when it couldn't get any worse - Harbinger shows up!!

Despite the valiant efforts, most of the Hammer force is wiped out and Shepard's crew have to retreat to the Normandy leaving him to fight on alone, injured, to the Citadel. After wandering through the now empty station he meets up with Anderson only to find them both ambushed by the Illusive Man, now a slave of the Reapers, he kills Anderson before Shepard convinces him of the truth and he kills himself (much as Saren did) leaving Shepard free to finish the process.

Now under his control, the Crucible docks with the Citadel, completing the device.

Shepard now confronts the Catalyst and has a hard choice to make.

The Catalyst (taking the form of the boy that haunts Shepard's dreams) is the intelligence that the Leviathans created, which in turn created the Reapers.

The Catalyst confirms that the Reapers 'harvest' organic life due to the constant conflict between organic and synthetic life that threatens to eradicate both kinds. Because of this the Reapers were created to harvest sentient life at it's peak before the conflict grew and then start again every 50,000 years with the organic life becoming integrated into a new Reaper.

It gives Shepard the power to choose the Galaxy's fate, destroy the Reapers (and all other synthetic life with them) or take control of them as the Illusive Man wanted to, with Shepard becoming the new Catalyst. Shepard, unhappy with these choices, uncovers a third - synthesis with organic and synthetic life merging into one and bringing unity and peace to the galaxy.

Shepard starts the process, at the cost of his own life, but he brings a new era of peace to the galaxy. The Reapers now merged with organic life offer their knowledge and help the races of the galaxy rebuild and look to the future. I'll leave you with this vid which shows the ending, slightly different from mine (ignore the female Shepard and dead Miranda!!) but which covers the future fought for by Shepard and the conclusionm of the game

I hope you've enjoyed hearing about my adventures in Mass Effect - there's a new comic series starting in a few month's time, the Citadel DLC I may get and BioWare have strongly hinted that they are not done with the universe even if they are finished with Shepard's story so I doubt this will be my last ever post on the subject!!